Vulnerable (Zayn Malik AU)

Chapter 11

•••
Daisys POV
•••



"What?" I asked.

"Be my....girlfriend?" He rubbed his neck, looking down at the water. "It's alright. You don't have to."

"No I-"

"I understand."

"Zayn! Let me finish!" I laughed. "I'd love to." I dropped back into the water, but just like last time he pulled me up.

"Really?" He beamed.

"You really thought I'd say no..?" I laughed again.

"I always doubted it, yeah." He rubbed his neck again.

"Always?"

"I mean...yeah. I don't know why I said that." He laughed nervously.

"Uh huh."



•••••



After swimming for maybe an hour, we gathered our things and went to Zayns house to dry off. I asked about his mom, but to my luck she was still at work. I think I wanted to meet his mom more than he wanted to meet my dad.

We sat on his couch wrapped in towels and a large blanket, trying not to let anything seep through. As big as the blanket was we still had to sit close to keep it closed, and it was too cold in his house to leave it open. Despite the circumstances, I was happy to see he enjoyed having a cold house as much as I did.

After watching music videos on his tv for what felt like only an hour, it was already 7 o'clock.

"You wanna head home?" He asked me.

"Yeah I probably should. It's my dads night off so I gotta make him lunch."

"Lunch? Its 7..."

"He's only been up for 3 hours. If he even woke up to his alarm. I may have to make him breakfast." I laughed. As weird as my dads schedule sounded to Zayn, I was used to it. He's been a poker dealer for as long as I can remember, and has always worked nights.

"Alright, then." He laughed and emerged from the warm cocoon we had created, still in nothing but his black swim trunks. "C'mon." He said reaching his hand to me. I hesitated, fearing the cold atmosphere that awaited to attack my warm skin.

"Where's my dress? It's cold out there." I asked and he went to retrieve it from the island in the kitchen. When he returned I could visibly see his skin was cold with little bumps sprawled on his arms. Not to mention his chest had two protruding nipples, despite the shirt he had just put on.

Yeah. I'm not letting that happen to me. I thought.

I let just one arm out of the blankets and graciously grabbed the dress, pulling it inside with me. I strategically slid the dress up without letting the blanket fall, but Zayn was completely laughing at me. It was a funny sight I'm sure- watching a girl struggle inside of a blanket without really seeing what's going on, just a bunch of movement and a struggling face.

"You good?" He asked when I finally stopped moving.

"I think so." I zipped up the very back of my dress and got ready to open the blanket.

"Wait." He said and I closed the little bit I had gotten open as he ran toward his room. "Here ya go." I looked up to see him holding a plain, charcoal sweatshirt.

"Oh. Thank you." I smiled. I pulled the sweatshirt inside and put my arms in. All at once I stood up and put the sweatshirt over my head, allowing the blanket to fall around my ankles. The cold air nipped at my exposed legs, but my torso was secure inside his sweatshirt. I tried not to get distracted by the subtle scent of his cologne and stepped out of the blanket, the cool wooden floor making me jump right back onto it.

"I'll go get your sandals." He chuckled.

Once we finally went outside and got into his car I actually felt a sweat coming on. It was so much hotter outside. I don't know if it was because of the jacket, but I was about to sweat bullets. The heat in the car was worse because it had been confined there for so long. Zayn immediately put the air on full blast, and I was thankful.

After the short ten minute drive back to my house, Zayn insisted on walking me to my door.

"So, you're sure you don't mind small dates?"

"Zayn. The more thought the better. If you put thought into it, it's definitely NOT small." I laughed. He was always so unsure of himself...I kind of admired that.

"If you say so, Dais." He said, and per usual, my stomach fluttered. "Can I pick you up for school tomorrow? I mean...since you are my girlfriend and all." He smiled and pulled my hand into his.

"I would love that." I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek. "See you in the morning."

"Goodnight, Daisy." He let go of my hand and I went inside. I don't know why it was so hard to let him leave. If I was more confident, I would've asked him to stay. My dad would never know...but if Zayn said no I would've just died of embarrassment.

"Dad! Are you hungry?" I called upstairs. "Dad!" I didn't hear even the slightest shuffle, so I made my way up.

I passed 'the man cave,' but it was empty. I reached his door and hesitated. I was so used to my dad having girls over that what may have be on the other side was a little unsettling.

"Dad?" I called again, knocking on the door. "I'm coming in." I said, slowly turning the knob. "Dad?" He was sprawled across his bed, the only thing clung to his body was a pair of black flannel boxers. "Ugh. Gross." I said, throwing his blanket back onto the bed, covering him. "Dude, get up. It's like 8." He groaned. "Richard James Toomey. Get your butt up, NOW." I hit him with his pillow.

"WHY. Why are you in my room, go away!" He's just as bad as I am. Such a teenager. I complained to myself.

"It's nearly 8! Get up!"

"Say a bad word."

"No."

"Do it and I'll get up." He said sternly.

My dad always tried to get me to curse. He was practically obsessed. I don't know why, but he was. And I never did. Not because I didn't like curse words, but because when they came from my mouth I just felt absolutely disgusting. It was always funny when my dad did it, but coming from me it just sounded wrong.

"I'm not doing it."

"Goodnight. Get out." He said rolling over, revealing his boxers again.

"Oh gosh, cover up! Are you hungry or not?!"

"Not if you don't cuss."

"For fucks sake I quit."

"What are you making?" He laughed.

"What do you want." I wasn't playing his game.

"Meatloaf."

"For breakfast? Ew. No."

"I'm kidding. I don't know. Just food."

"Get up." I said dropping the pillow in my hands onto his face. "And put some damn clothes on you old bastard." I'd never sounded less threatening in my life.

"That's my girl!"

I shook my head and walked out, heading to the kitchen downstairs.

I rummaged through the cupboards and found nothing but my cereal and a bunch of hamburger helper. No breakfast items. I ate the last of what I had when I resorted to pancakes and strawberries. I opened the fridge and searched the drawers, but again, they were empty. What was in them had gone bad.

"So what am I eating?" I jumped at my dads voice coming from behind the fridge.

"You can have some of my cereal? I have nothing else to offer."

"Why didn't you tell me we were running low on food?" He scorned me.

"I didn't notice. Honest." He sighed and went over to the cupboard, pulling out my box of Captain Crunch.

"I'll leave you money on your dresser tomorrow for groceries ok?"

"Okay. And by the way...$500 for clothes?! I still haven't yelled at you for that."

"Did you get new ones? Cause we may need to talk about your fashion choices." He raised his eyebrows at my sweatshirt-covered dress.

"No, I got tons. And saved $100 for anything I might need."

"Smart. I knew I had to have done something right with you." He laughed and emptied the last of the milk into his bowl.

"You did a lot right, Dad." I started walking back to my room. "I like to think so, anyway." Despite the mistakes my dad has made, they never effected me directly. Sure, he cheated on my mom. But the way I saw it...it hurt her. Not me. He didn't have another kid...that would be cheating on me. It's a weird way to look at it, but its the only way I got through it, I guess.